Stretcher chairs enable patients to remain on one surface from pre-op through a procedure and all the way to PACU. They eliminate the need for staff to laterally transfer...

Staff at Einstein Endoscopy Center in Blue Bell, Pa., used to receive annual ergonomics training based on a standardized program designed by experts who work for the large health system that owns the facility. The instruction...

The pandemic has highlighted the important work performed by surgical professionals and infection preventionists in surgery centers across the country as concerns...

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) has released an updated guideline on preventing unintentionally retained surgical items (RSIs) that includes the recommendation to use technology to locate...

Several years ago, a 96-year-old woman who was experiencing severe chest pain came to see me. She could no longer eat and explained that — for 40 years! — she had been...

Surgical professionals are growing more interested in finding ways to eliminate opioids from the post-op pain management equation and the stakes have never been higher....

We’re almost two years into the pandemic and by now the revamped infection prevention protocols you rushed to implement in order to keep your doors open must...

It’s the middle of a hectic day and your worst nightmare just happened. A patient has fallen, and now you must check for potential injuries and reassure them and their family members that everything is alright....

Coming up with a discreet way to identify patients who have bloodborne pathogens such as HIV or hepatitis B — infectious diseases that pose risks to staff members — simultaneously maintains patient dignity...

Medicare requires surgical facilities to have an emergency plan in place for rare and dire events that could take place in a healthcare setting. Of course, even the most comprehensive emergency plan won’t help if...

What does safe surgical care mean to you? Eliminating avoidable adverse events by developing and maintaining competent teams...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Surgeons clearly don’t intend to cause stray energy burns when they cut and coagulate tissue with energy-based surgical...

Focusing on the clinical aspects of multiple complex procedures during a busy day of surgery is stressful for surgical teams, so it’s understandable that the basic steps...

Proper medication safety requires surgical leaders to ask some very tough questions. Are employees stealing drugs for consumption or resale? Did a staffer not dilute a drug...

Proper medication safety requires surgical leaders to ask some very tough questions. Are employees stealing drugs for consumption or resale? Did a staffer not dilute a drug...

A nurse suffers a serious back injury while trying to lift a patient without help. A patient falls during the transition from the OR to the PACU. Unfortunately, these issues happen...

Using barcode scanning or radio-frequency identification to confirm the accuracy of manual counts will result in fewer sponges left inside patients, yet surgical professionals...

Why don’t all healthcare facilities employ some sort of surgical smoke evacuation system? Not only does surgical smoke smell and obstruct the surgeon’s view of the...

All too often, misconceptions regarding the inherent safety risks associated with intraoperative fluoroscopy obscure a fundamental truth about C-arms: With the right...

Every time we send out a staff engagement survey, we include the following question: Does your manager have a safety-first mindset? The question may seem out of place on an engagement survey,...